NEOMA Business School, recognised by other management schools for the quality of its innovative pedagogic methods, has made another significant step forward today in its strategy by including immersive virtual reality in its programmes relating to teaching materials.

Over the last few months the school has developed a case-study concept that uses immersive virtual reality, which will be offered to all the students at the start of the 2016 school year. One of the purposes of this initial pedagogic tool using immersive virtual reality is to open a path for new innovative projects done in partnership with other institutions and businesses.

The device was developed by Alain Goudey, Professor of Marketing and the Teaching & Learning Centre at NEOMA Business School, a department that aims to promote and support the improvement and continuous and innovative development of pedagogic skills and activities.

The concept of “edutainment” – a contraction of the words “education” and “entertainment” – has become the norm because schools can no longer monopolize information. For Alain Goudey, “it’s a major challenge for management schools, one that pushes them to reinvent the way they teach. That’s why NEOMA Business School chose to include, among other things, immersive virtual reality in its pedagogic strategy, which already has a solid focus on experience-based learning, namely confronting practical contexts. This is ideal for disciplines that undergo major developments such as marketing.”

Therefore, the school provided complete access to the point-of-sale network of 6Netic, a NEOMA Business School partner and leader in the repair of mobile phones, multimedia products and accessories, who helped complete this device, which will be used as a pedagogic tool by more than 900 students.  

Using “Homido” headsets and a smartphone, the device created by the school’s teams allows for immersion in a point of sale so students can analyse the organisation. From a teaching point of view, the practical exercise allows students who are involved in this immersive visit to:
•    observe and analyse the organisation of a point of sale and the structuring of its activities;
•    understand the impact of the location and its architecture on individuals (customers and employees), the physical manifestation of the strategy through the layout of the retail space (atmosphere, open space/offices, common areas, logistics/process optimisation in the workshop, etc.);
•    analyse the choices made in relation to the results they produce;
•    construct a reasoned proposal for optimising the organisation of the point of sale, accompanied by a concrete action plan (actions, timing, budget).
The developed concept makes it possible for all the students at the school to access this virtual visit, thereby freeing them from the constraints of time, traveling, availability or accessibility to certain areas…

In the long term, the key interest for students is also to acquire knowledge of this technology, which will add greater depth to their profiles when they finish school and enter the job market.

“In a context where the development of original, more personalised and modern pedagogic methods becomes a determining factor in the choice of future students, NEOMA Business School reaffirms its status as a pioneer in innovative pedagogy. Through our actions and projects, the school offers its students experiential pedagogic material that’s on the cutting edge of innovation,” explained Marie-Laure Massué, Director of the Teaching & Learning Centre at NEOMA Business School.